Hybrid - FHEV or PHEV
Hybrid - FHEV or PHEV
Author
Discussion

smallzoo

Original Poster:

345 posts

198 months

Wednesday 14th September 2022
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My wife is lucky to have a company car but its BIK and tax is too high ( Seat Arona FR ) so her boss has decided she can have a hybrid car. The seat is a great car but the BIKis £13k and taking £1800 a year approx

We tried an electric for a month but the trouble we had planning on long trips ( she is is sales ) for EV charging ( some didn't work, some were broken, a lot occupied etc.. ) was horrendous

From my brief reading about the subject it seems the PHEV cars are quite a bit more expensive BUT the BIK and tax a lot lower that the standard FHEV

We are going to look at a few but honestly no idea which are good and which are bad.. we want a decent 5 door, large hatchback/SUV. I guess the obvious are the Ford Puma. and Kuga, Kia Nero but please any ideas what to go and have a look at would be great

Budget.. well, ideally under £35k ORP but it might be leased so that may not be correct

cheers

UTH

12,138 posts

206 months

Wednesday 14th September 2022
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I feel like this is a question I need to be asking as well, but I think first I need to clarify at last what the difference is between them all?

FHEV and PHEV are.....Fully Hybrid Electric Vehicle and Petrol Hybrid Electric Vehicle? I feel I have that wrong already.

We have a diesel mini that doesn't comply with ULEZ zone, so we need to update it to.....something. So I think this thread is asking the question I need to ask? Basically, Electric, or Hybrid, what's best?

Scrump

23,909 posts

186 months

Wednesday 14th September 2022
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PHEV = Plug in Hybrid Electric Vehicle

FHEV is self charging (non plug in), not sure why they are called Fully Hybrid Electric Vehicles.

smallzoo

Original Poster:

345 posts

198 months

Wednesday 14th September 2022
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Sorry, I should have clarified the difference..

Yes the FHEV only has.a small battery which basically only chares when you slow down and provides better economy and performance ( although some will definitely argue against that lol )

The PHEV has a bigger battery but still petrol powered. The EV range is usually around 35miles which the car can be driven on electric so again helps performance/economy but can be charged at home or outside

Bobtherallyfan

1,503 posts

106 months

Wednesday 14th September 2022
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Left field choice might be the new Honda Civic.

UTH

12,138 posts

206 months

Wednesday 14th September 2022
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Ahhhhh, I did feel had that wrong!

Thread helping already.

ZX10R NIN

30,422 posts

153 months

Wednesday 14th September 2022
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If I'm not mistaken BIK on a PHEV is lower than a FHEV so that's where I'd be looking.

Something like a Peugeot 308 GT would be where I'd be looking.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202208078...

HelldogBE

285 posts

71 months

Wednesday 14th September 2022
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Bobtherallyfan said:
Left field choice might be the new Honda Civic.
That's an eHEV/FHEV, so a self-charging hybrid similar to a Corolla Hybrid. Those don't fall into the low CO2/BIK tax brackets.

I'd be looking at a Skoda Octavia Hybrid and it's cousins (Seat Leon eHybrid, VW Golf E-hybrid). Most of them exist both as a hatchback and as a tourer.

Rob8980

44 posts

82 months

Wednesday 14th September 2022
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The Toyota RAV4 PHEV has one of the biggest electric ranges and has a low BIK tax.

msportpanda

722 posts

153 months

Thursday 15th September 2022
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I picked up my first PHEV on Saturday, in theory its fantastic, the car manages between battery and engine very nicely and fuel economy is decent.

That said, I'm not sure I entirely see the point of PHEV (aside from tax dodging). A full charge gets me circa 50 miles of electric only driving, this costs me about £9 to charge at home.

The petrol engine returns about 40 mpg so about 48 miles per £9 of fuel.

So it's not any cheaper to run as a pure EV than it would be to run as a petrol.

If I charge up the battery and run it as a PHEV hybrid, yes the overall fuel consumption is better but that's only for as long as the battery lasts, once it's depleted I'm back to 40ish mpg?

Would rather do full electric where the mpkWh is higher meaning it actually works out beneficial in terms of pence per mile.I miss my chugga chugga 70 mpg diesel!

Andy665

4,155 posts

256 months

Thursday 15th September 2022
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msportpanda said:
I picked up my first PHEV on Saturday, in theory its fantastic, the car manages between battery and engine very nicely and fuel economy is decent.

That said, I'm not sure I entirely see the point of PHEV (aside from tax dodging). A full charge gets me circa 50 miles of electric only driving, this costs me about £9 to charge at home.

The petrol engine returns about 40 mpg so about 48 miles per £9 of fuel.

So it's not any cheaper to run as a pure EV than it would be to run as a petrol.

If I charge up the battery and run it as a PHEV hybrid, yes the overall fuel consumption is better but that's only for as long as the battery lasts, once it's depleted I'm back to 40ish mpg?

Would rather do full electric where the mpkWh is higher meaning it actually works out beneficial in terms of pence per mile.I miss my chugga chugga 70 mpg diesel!
You are missing the point that the battery is never fully depleted, it re-charges through regenerative braking and diverting unneeded engine power so you still get access to EV power or ICE / EV - its simply not the case that your battery is charged at home and once that power is used it is ICE only

What The Deuces

2,780 posts

52 months

Thursday 15th September 2022
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Andy665 said:
You are missing the point that the battery is never fully depleted, it re-charges through regenerative braking and diverting unneeded engine power so you still get access to EV power or ICE / EV - its simply not the case that your battery is charged at home and once that power is used it is ICE only
Also you get exemption from low emission zones

Canon_Fodder

1,775 posts

91 months

Thursday 15th September 2022
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OP just in case you hadn't realised, you don't ever need to actually 'plug-in' a 'plug-in EHV' so they can just be used like a normal car and yahboosucks to HMRC.

Edit to add that HMRC will get some revenge via the extra fuel duty your wife will have to pay to lug battery around

Edited by Canon_Fodder on Thursday 15th September 19:46

msportpanda

722 posts

153 months

Thursday 15th September 2022
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Andy665 said:
You are missing the point that the battery is never fully depleted, it re-charges through regenerative braking and diverting unneeded engine power so you still get access to EV power or ICE / EV - its simply not the case that your battery is charged at home and once that power is used it is ICE only
Sorry should've made it more clear, it does operate rather like a HEV once the battery shows 0% but again my thought is why charge the batteries at home if the effective cost to run is the same as using fuel...

smallzoo

Original Poster:

345 posts

198 months

Tuesday 20th September 2022
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Thanks to everyone so far

What I am amazed at is how much work you have to do to find what the BIK value is and so personal tax cost

They all differ so much is quite difficult getting a reasonble priced hybrid/phev that gives you decent benefits

Maybe I should look at a large family hatchback mhev/phev .. if there are any ?




HelldogBE

285 posts

71 months

Tuesday 20th September 2022
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smallzoo said:
Thanks to everyone so far

What I am amazed at is how much work you have to do to find what the BIK value is and so personal tax cost

They all differ so much is quite difficult getting a reasonble priced hybrid/phev that gives you decent benefits

Maybe I should look at a large family hatchback mhev/phev .. if there are any ?



Have you looked at my suggestion of "Skoda Octavia Hybrid and it's cousins (Seat Leon eHybrid, VW Golf E-hybrid)" ?
These are all real PHEV's so low BIK.

The high BIK/CO2 points to them being Mild Hybrid (a very small battery, similar to the Corolla/Prius Hybrid) without plug-in ability (or too small of a plug-in battery for current BIK optimisation).

Haltamer

2,662 posts

108 months

Tuesday 20th September 2022
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smallzoo said:
Maybe I should look at a large family hatchback mhev/phev .. if there are any ?
508 Hybrid - Friend has one, extremely quiet and comfortable, decent adaptive dampers, Preconditioning - Doesn't have the best hybrid range, ~20 miles, but you can charge on the move by setting power reserve if you're going into town and it gets good MPG on a longer run.

There's always the PSE Version if you want something rapid too wink